To launch the 40th anniversary celebrations of the World Heritage Convention, UNESCO offered the World Heritage iPhone/iPad application (app) free for one day. On Wednesday, 16 November the app was downloaded 13,343 times from the Apple iTunes store. It proved to be most popular in France, the United States and China.
An update of the App, which now features the 25 new sites added to the ...

On 16 November 2011, Kishore Rao, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, presented a certificate to German Minister for Environment Norbert Röttgen and the State Ministers recognizing the inscription of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany on the World Heritage List. The ceremony was held in Berlin, Germany and included representatives ...

The World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce the publication of the World Heritage Paper #30: “Adapting to Change – The State of Conservation of World Heritage Forests in 2011” as a contribution to the 2011 United Nations International Year of Forests.
There are 104 World Heritage sites that have been recognized at least in part for their forest values. These range from the 20 hectare ...

In June 2011 UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and Turismo de Portugal, the Portuguese Tourism Authority, signed an agreement engaging in a cooperation project on capacity-building for tourism management in World Heritage sites of Portuguese origin. This project is an integral part of the continuous cooperation that is being carried out by the World Heritage Centre and Portugal, ...

A contribution of the G-77 & China in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, in collaboration with UNESCO, the photo exhibit "The G-77 & China at UNESCO celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention" was launched at UNESCO today as the first event marking the anniversary year. It will be on display from 7 to 10 November 2011 at UNESCO ...

The latest version of the World Heritage map, produced by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and National Geographic Maps with the generous support of Russian Federation, can now be ordered for a modest fee from the World Heritage Centre website. The featured image on the Map presents Saint Petersburg, where the next session of the World Heritage Committee will be held (June/July 2012).
The ...

The Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova today launched the 40th anniversary celebrations for the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO's Member States on 16 November 1972.
In her address, the Director-General called for a year of renewal for World Heritage. "Heritage stands at the crossroads of climate change, social ...

Nine new members were elected to the World Heritage Committee on the first day of the 18th General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, which started its meeting today at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. The new members of the Committee are Algeria, Colombia, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Qatar, Senegal and Serbia. Each country will serve a mandate of four ...

One of the largest restoration projects in the history of the United States is underway at Olympic National Park World Heritage site in Washington. Begun in September 2010, the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha River will result in salmon populations swelling from 3,000 to more than 300,000 as all five species of Pacific salmon return to more than 70 ...

UNESCO is monitoring with concern the situation in the Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island, World Heritage site where fires have been raging since 25 October.
According to early reports from the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, at least 3,000 ha of the 100,000 ha property have been destroyed by the fires. Twenty-six endemic rare plant species are already known to have been ...

On 10 August 2011 the Japanese Government approved the programme proposal "Capacity Building to Support the Conservation of World Heritage Sites and Enhance Sustainable Development of Local Communities in Small island Developing States (SIDS)", with a total budget of USD 1 million.
The overall objective of the project proposal is to develop regional capacity building programmes for Pacific ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre would like to express its condolences for the lives lost in northern Italy last week in the floods and mudslides resulting from torrential rains.
Villages as well as road and railway communication lines of the Cinque Terre World Heritage site have been severely affected by the rains, and the Centre is working with the national and local authorities to ...

UNESCO has invited experts from both inside and outside of Libya to urgently examine the preservation of cultural heritage in the country, notably measures to safeguard cultural sites; prevent illicit trafficking, protect museums and strengthen cultural institutions in the wake of civil strife and the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime. The meeting - the first on protecting Libyan cultural ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre participated in a round table on “Attractiveness of regional assets: The creation and regionalization of added value” at the world’s first international forum of Purple Economy held in Paris, France, 11-13 October 2011 together with Carlo Petrini (Founder and President of Slow Food) and Daniel Maximin (Commissioner of the French Year on ...

Severe flooding in Thailand since mid July has this week inundated the World Heritage property of the Historic City of Ayutthaya, founded in ca. 1350 as the second capital of the Kingdom of Siam after Sukhothai. Located on an island on the Chao Praya river, the protective embankments could no longer withstand the increasing height of the floods.
UNESCO Bangkok Office and the World Heritage ...

Fauna and Flora International (FFI) a longtime partner of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, launched a global appeal this week with the objective of helping protect over 50,000 hectares of the globally unique “fynbos” ecosystem in the Cape Floral region of South Africa.The targeted lands are in the World Heritage site’s buffer areas, contributing to the long term ...

Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino and Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California(both located in Baja California, Mexico).
The Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino site has been inscribed on the World Heritage List since 1993. It is the only calving and nursery area for the Eastern Pacific gray whale population, which traditionally travels there each season from the Bering and Chukchi seas ...

Born after 31 December 1975 you will be under 30 years of age in 2012. You are a native of a Mediterranean country. You wish to develop a project furthering the knowledge and understanding of Mediterranean cultures.
Every year the Marc de Montalembert Foundation offers a grant of 7000 euro to enable the implementation of such projects.
To apply for the 2005 Marc de Montalembert grant ...

The Northern Luzon of the Philippines was severely affected by Typhoon Pedrin (International Name: Nesat) which crossed the region on Tuesday 27 September. Its trajectory passed across the Ifugao Province and has, according to preliminary reports, caused major mud and landslides within the area of the World Heritage property of the Rice Terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras. A second typhoon ...

Financed by the Flemish Government and organized by UNESCO and its space partners, in particular Planet Action, this exhibition uses a series of remarkable examples to demonstrate the use of satellite Earth observation to assess the effects of climate change on selected World Heritage sites.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that ‘global warming is ...